Bangladesh Jamaat leader gets 90 years for genocide

Activists from Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party Jamaat-e-Islami vandalize a bus during a nationwide strike in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2013. A Bangladeshi tribunal sentenced Abdul Quader Mollah, a leader of the country's main Islamic party, to life in jail Tuesday for his role during the independence war against Pakistan in 1971. Mollah's Jamaat-e-Islami party had already ordered a nationwide general strike to denounce the trial, shutting down schools and shops and halting most traffic in Dhaka. (AP Photo/A.M. Ahad)

A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal on Monday sentenced Ghulam Azam, former chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, to 90 years’ imprisonment for his role in the 1971 genocide of Bangladeshis who fought the Pakistani occupation army for independence.

Delivering the historic verdict, the International Crimes Tribunal-1, headed by Justice A.T.M. Fazle Kabir, pronounced that the Jamaat’s founding father was guilty of murder, torture of unarmed people, conspiracy, planning, incitement and complicity in genocide.

Azam was considered the “mastermind” of the anti-liberation force.

The tribunal, however, did not hand the 91-year-old Azam the death penalty considering his age. If the conviction is approved by the Supreme Court, Azam will have to be incarcerated till his death.